One of two Surrey shooting victims related to murdered gangster Sandip Duhre

Police investigate after a shootout between two vehicles in Surrey sent two men to hospital on August 2, 2013.

Photograph by: Submitted
, Gangster Spotlight

METRO VANCOUVER -- A young man critically wounded in a Surrey shooting Friday afternoon is the stepson of murdered gangster Sandip Duhre, The Vancouver Sun has learned.

The young Surrey man and his friend were wounded during a shoot-out between two vehicles in the 5800-block of 126th Street at around 2:45 p.m., Surrey RCMP Sgt. Drew Grainger said.

The Duhre relative was struck in the chest and had a punctured lung.

"He is critical, but expected to survive this injury," Grainger said. The other man had "a grazing injury."

While Grainger was not releasing the identity of the victims - who are 21 and 19 - The Sun confirmed through sources the link to Duhre, the notorious gangster shot to death in the lobby of the Sheraton Wall Centre in January 2012.

Rival gangster Rabih (Robby) Alkhalil has been charged in the Duhre murder and remains in custody in Greece where he was arrested earlier this year.

Alkhalil is expected to be extradited to Ontario, where he faces another first-degree murder charge. He is also charged in Quebec in a massive cocaine conspiracy in which B.C Hells Angel Larry Amero is a co-accused.

Grainger said Friday's victims were in one of two vehicles shooting at each other - a gold-coloured sedan like a Toyota Corolla and a dark-coloured Infinity sports car.

"It looks like they were involved in the shooting and made their way to hospital in another vehicle," Grainger said.

Police determined the third vehicle was a dark-coloured mini-van.

Grainger said the shooting took place in a busy neighbourhood where passers-by could easily have gotten caught I the cross-fire.

"This was a brazen and despicable act," he said. "That is a residential neighbourhood with families and kids going about their business before a long weekend."

Police are looking to find the vehicles and suspects involved in the shooting. Anyone with information is asked to contact Surrey RCMP at 604-599-0502 or Crime Stoppers, at 1-800-222-tips.

Some fear the shooting is a sign that a violent gang conflict is continuing between the remnants of the Duhre-Dhak group and the Wolf-Pack alliance of Red Scorpions, Independent Soldiers and some Hells Angels.

The gang war has left more than a dozen gangsters dead, including Red Scorpion Jonathan Bacon, Duhre, Sukh Dhak and others.

Just last month, Bacon associate Brian (Shrek) Dhaliwal showed up at an Abbotsford hospital suffering a gunshot wound. He claimed to police that he had been wounded while driving somewhere in between 264nd Street and Mount Lehman Road in Abbotsford, but said he didn't know the exact location.

And in June, Harpreet Chahal, an associate of one of the men charged in the Bacon murder, was shot to death in Abbotsford in another targeted attack.